pluck down the stars from heaven
by XxZuiliu
Summary: Freedom is only an illusion until you possess the strength to reach out and grasp it with your own two hands. (Or: In which a soldier is reborn as a village girl in a world where piracy runs rampant, strange fruits grant superpowers, and the laws of physics are shot to hell.) [SI/OC, LawOC, AU]
1. 1: 01 a village by the sea

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Title: pluck down the stars from heaven

Rating: T for now, might be upped to M later due to violence and such.

Summary: Freedom is only an illusion until you possess the strength to reach out and grasp it with your own two hands. (Or: In which a soldier is reborn as a village girl in a world where piracy runs rampant, strange fruits grant superpowers, and the laws of physics are shot to hell.) [SI/OC, LawOC, AU]

Disclaimer: I do not own _One Piece._

(AN at the bottom of the chapter.)

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* * *

 **pluck down the stars from heaven**

 _01: "take me there"_

* * *

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 _Seeri_ is the sound of the laughing wind.

It is the mirth of a light wind whistling high through the jagged precipices of salt-tunnels carved into a rocky cliff face, ancient stone carved into sharp swirls through years upon years of leaping waves and thunderous tides. The word itself is a little hard to properly translate into the standard tongue, but it means something akin to a slight mix between 'as fast as the fleeting wind that darts into crevices untouched by any others before' and 'swiftly in hopes of being quick and deft and fleet of feet.'

Seeri.

It is her name, though not her first.

The name she had once gone by is a very different name from the one she uses now. In a similar vein, the world she had once lived in is a completely different world from the one she inhabits now – _that_ had been a little hard to swallow in the beginning, but it hadn't been something particularly hard to figure out after her memories had finished re-assimilating themselves in her mind, sometime back when she had been five-going-on-six during the long winter. What remains truly mystifying and baffling to her nowadays is the matter of how she even came to be in this world in the first place, though that's a slightly different issue.

Put simply, this is what the world knows: North Blue, East Blue, South Blue, West Blue.

On the other hand, this is what she remembers: Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and a dozen others beside.

(And _that_ was only the tip of the iceberg in listing the vast number of existing differences.)

Recalling some twenty-odd years of another life is not normal, not by a long shot. Particularly not when the life she recalls is one lived in an entirely different world, a life in which her career as a soldier had always meant a whirlwind of deployments and battles and guard shifts and practically everything in-between. She remembers the weight of a rifle on her shoulder, the cold kiss of a shotgun in her hands, the familiarity of knives falling through her fingertips. She remembers the acrid scent of smoke burning through the air, carcinogenic compounds, a dead end in a collapsed building, _blood._

She remembers dying.

It's… not pleasant, mildly speaking.

(Translation: It fucking _sucks,_ big time _._ )

Seeri, however, is not a soldier. In contrast to the rather violent life she remembers having lived once upon a time, Seeri is only another simple orphan child of Ayoka Village, one of the numerous villages dotting the coasts of one of the many islands of North Blue. It is the family that takes her in to raise as their own that names her _seeri_ , to match her brother who is _yune._ _Yune,_ which is the whisper of the summer breeze that glides sedately over calm waters, steady and reliable; _yune_ is the wind that is warmth and midsummer and all-encompassing tranquility.

Such naming practices may not be very popular in the more urbanized cities inland, but they are rather common in these parts, these rural areas. This is especially true in the cases of quiet coastal villages as small as Ayoka, sitting right at the edge of the vast ocean blue.

In fact, within Ayoka Village itself, there is a prevailing superstition amongst the elder folk that all names hold power, particularly those rooted in nature. If you name a child after the sound of water falling down, then the child shall grow to be of grace and beauty. If you name a child for the thunder roaring in the sky, then the child will come to be of great physical prowess. Most commonly, though, children of Ayoka tend to be named after the wind and waves; the very wind and waves stirring incessantly over the vast, endless Blue.

It all comes back to the sea, she thinks. And it's true, in a manner of speaking.

Like many other coastal villages, Ayoka's general livelihood depends on the bounty that is offered to them by the plentiful sea, which varies from year to year as the seasons change. Unlike many of the other villages that depend on fishing, however, the rocky cliffs that Ayoka Village is carved into seldom see schools of fish passing by in significant numbers. Slip into the waters below the village, and the jagged spires jutting out from the bottom mean nothing but danger and death for those caught unawares.

Look closer at those rocks, however.

Look closer at those mud-covered rocks along the foot of the sloping cliff buried deep underwater, brush away the sea plants folding over this way and that, pry up the bumpy brown-black lumps from where they cling so tightly to their homes and bring them to the surface world above.

Walk to the shallows, crouch down, rinse and wash.

It takes a good scrubbing, but once the mud washes off, sometimes the lumpy oyster shells don't look quite so ugly from the outside anymore. Sometimes it's a game, seeing who finds the prettiest oyster shell that day. Seeri has never won that particular competition before, but that's not this competition that really matters.

Take a knife. Slip the blade into the crack, the opening of the oyster, and pry it open.

And if there is something that glints under the sunlight, something round and small and shiny melded within the soft flesh inside–

 _That_ is what matters.

Ayoka is a pearl-diving village. Oysters flourish along the bottom of the cliff and the sea floor that the village overlooks, and so it is oysters that the villagers of Ayoka depend on for a living. Both oyster shells and oyster flesh are sold to traveling merchants in large quantities, but it is the pearls that truly draws interest to what would otherwise be another small, unassuming village overlooked in a grand scheme of things. To a certain extent, this is still true for Ayoka, but since pearls are purchased by the rich and wealthy–

Well.

Ayoka Village does well enough for a coastal village that is as small as it is.

Life in a pearl-diving village half buried into the cliffs is far from safe and comfortable. Pearl divers of the village die each year in various accidents underwater, and the village itself is often cold and wet; misery's harbinger is in the salt-winds whistling in through the cracks and stealing what little warmth the hearth has to offer in winter. But even so, Seeri finds a certain charm to living such a simplistic life, despite it being harsh and dangerous. She is no stranger to danger, after all, and as hazardous as pearl-diving itself can be, it still does not compare to the art of murder.

In any other place, any other time, any other world –within any other parallel reality of this world, even one where Seeri still retains her memories of her past life– absolutely nothing would happen. Seeri would live out the rest of her days as yet another villager of Ayoka, a pearl diver, and she would live quietly and peacefully. Put her in a crowd, and she would only be another nameless face among many, unassuming and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

There are two reasons why that does not happen in this reality, and in hindsight, _of course._ Of course it figures that _those_ are the two reasons why Seeri does not manage to live the life of normalcy that she would have chosen in any other reality parallel to this one, left to her own devices.

Here are the reasons in a nutshell: Marines, and pirates.

(Of course it would be the involvement of the Marines and pirates that upends everything.)

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* * *

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It starts with the Marines.

Or rather, it technically all starts with pirates –but it's the Marines who come first, guns raised and yelling, and the village is thrown into an uproar. (Or as much of an uproar that a village as small as Ayoka can get into; mostly, it only consists of the elderly complaining about being woken up so rudely in the middle of the night and the children scrambling around in excitement, as well as the epic escape of a duck tumbling down the cliff and into the sea. That kind of an uproar.)

Cold night, gray clouds strewn across the sky, water-heavy wind.

" _I can feel the rain in my bones,"_ Granny Haesse complains groggily. _Haesse_ , the soft sigh of the receding tide on long shores under the light of the gentle moon curved in heaven. _"Stars and stones. Mark my words, there is a high storm a-stirring on the horizon. My back hurts. Someone fetch me my walking stick."_

"… _The Marines are just lining us up, we won't be walking anywhere, Granny."_ the teenage boy beside the old woman soothes, to no avail.

" _When you get to my age, Yune, you'll see the importance of a walking stick."_ Granny Haesse sniffs and turns her nose up in the air. Then, deliberately repeating herself: _"My back hurts."_

"… _You're asking for a walking stick because your back hurts?"_ the teenager asks in complete deadpan. _"A walking stick is a walking stick because it's meant for walking. What does walking have to do with your back when you're just standing here, Granny?"_

" _Why you impudent little–"_

Seeri gives up and goes to fetch the cranky old woman her walking stick.

" _You're no fun, Seeri,"_ her brother says, but the tone is not one of complaint. If anything, it hides an undercurrent of fondness and laughter. _"Take all the wind out of my sails, why don't you?"_

"… _You were teasing Granny again, weren't you?"_

Yune, sandy-haired and golden-eyed, simply sticks out his tongue and smiles. For all that he is hailed as the best diver of the village, Yune has never quite grown out of that mischievous streak of his a mile wide from childhood. Many were the merry chases that villagers caught in his web had been led on; loudly had the laughter of silver bells and cockle shells rung through the air.

"Attention!" It's the Marine stepping forward in front of the villagers who catches their eye now. The squad of Marines responsible for barging in upon them in the dead of the night fan out and surround them in a semicircle, and some of the villagers shuffle uneasily from their place among the rocks. Although this is home, there is no comfort in it, not now. For all that the Marines are meant to protect the people, they know only too well that this is not always the case; why, last month they had received word that the neighboring village…

The commanding Marine stands tall and proud.

"I apologize for the inconvenience that our presence has caused you tonight," his voice is loud and clear. "However, we have received reports that there is a pirate crew hiding within these cliffs –the area we have been assigned to search includes your village, so please be patient while we conduct the search."

His words are nice and pretty, of that there is no doubt.

The actions of his subordinates, however, paint an entirely different picture.

" _What is that child doing!? That pearl necklace belonged to my great-great-grandmother, why is he taking it–"_

" _Shell bracelets; those are the shell bracelets I've spent this entire moon crafting–"_

" _Look, Da! Da, isn't that my basket? The pearls–"_

(This is how everything begins, this is how the chaos begins to unfold; this is the prelude to the rising storm.)

"Sah," Yune steps forward, words clumsy in the rough standard tongue that is rarely used here, so unlike the water-notes and wind-whistles that Ayoka villagers write and speak and know by heart. "Sah, please stop 'is. Ain't no one 'ere causing no 'ouble fah mah- _reens."_

"Of course there isn't," the Marine responds, smiling gaily. "We are only gathering evidence that can be used in tracking down the pirates hiding here, nothing else. There is no need for any agitation, _boy."_

"Sah, no pirates 'ere." Yune insists and spreads out his arms to the side, gesturing towards his fellow villagers. Seeri sidles a little closer behind her brother in a movement as casual as casual can be, not liking the light that enters the Marines' eyes at seeing someone stand up against them. "Ain't no pirates 'ere, ah swear."

"I'm afraid your word isn't good enough," the smooth reply makes more than one pair of eyes narrow dangerously, but no one moves. No one moves, because they are unarmed villagers caught off guard and dragged out of their homes in the middle of the night, while the Marines are clearly well-prepared for this outright ransacking of their village.

It makes something in her burn at seeing this, this outright injustice, seeing their hard work being so easily carted off like this, by a group of Marines abusing their status. Not for the first time, Seeri thinks that things like this would rarely happen in the inland cities, where communication was well-developed and news traveled much, _much_ faster than a small village buried into the cliffs overlooking the sea.

The isolation of Ayoka Village is as much a curse as it is a blessing –the hazardous location itself means that few would be willing to venture so far out to the sea where the oysters are plentiful, which in turn ensures that Ayoka has few competitors in the pearl-diving business. Yet on the flipside, when occurrences like _these_ occur –rare as they tend to be hereabouts– there is no one they can turn to for help. Even if they report this incident and it i _sn't_ brushed under the rug like so many 'accidents' are wont to be, the red tape of bureaucracy will be a nightmare in itself to go through, and it will probably take somewhere around a _year_ for their complaint to even be processed.

Because, even if Ayoka is one of the only pearl-producing villages around here, they are small and out-of-the-way enough that they rank very lowly on the list of priorities. It is the inland cities where "big business" transactions take place that the bulk of attention from the authorities is focused. Who would spare a second thought for a village as small as Ayoka?

Seeri sees it a moment before it happens.

" _Brother, don't,"_ she warns. There is something unusually dark in her brother's eyes as they see the Marines begin carting things out from their home –his lips are only firmly set in a frown as they take out the cleaned oysters and carefully-polished pearls, but it is the appearance of a small, tattered box that changes everything. To be sure, it is not a box that Seeri remembers ever seeing before, but judging from the way Yune stiffens, doubtless it contains something precious to him inside.

"Hey look, it's a locked box I found in that hovel over there! Looks pretty neat, huh? Do you guys wanna–"

That's all the Marine manages to get out before he goes under in a tangle of flailing limbs and loud yells.

Yune is physically strong in his own right –years of diving and living on the cliffs makes him hard and sturdy, a powerhouse, but this is a Marine, a _Marine._ A Marine who, no matter how despicable his character might be, has nonetheless still received official combat training, and for all his brute strength, Yune is still only just a young villager with his heart in the right place and his strength not enough to match his heart.

Not quite, not yet.

Bluntly speaking, Seeri does not fear Marines, even if she is reluctant to confront them such as Yune is doing right now. For all that she remembers of blood and fighting from a previous life, that does not mean she is eager to return to such a life now that she has tasted peace in Ayoka. As long as the Marines do not attack her personally, she will look the other way in their looting and pillaging –pirates are much the same way, are they not? Visitors to Ayoka are rare, but incidents like these have occurred before on separate occasions.

 _This,_ however, is personal.

This is her brother that these Marines are now holding down and beating as punishment for daring to try and take back what belongs to him.

As a sibling, even if not directly by blood –how can she stand aside?

(At least, this is how she rationalizes her actions to herself in the aftermath; in truth, Seeri leaps into the fray only a heartbeat after the other Marines begin converging on Yune.)

…

There is something to be said, however, for the difference between remembering how to fight, and actually fighting. And that is that they are _different,_ that remembering, knowing how to fight is very different from actually fighting, and it would do well to keep that in mind beforehand, prior to jumping headfirst into a fight. Particularly if the person in question happens to be a rather malnourished village girl, and the people that she is trying to fight against are hardy young Marines in tip-top shape.

It is not much of a contest.

Seeri manages to catch one with a hook to the face and another with a heavy kick between the legs, but then the rest start wising up to her and she soon finds herself forced onto her knees in front of the commanding Marine. It is an act of humiliation and shame, being forced to submit in a kneeling position like this. Yune is no different beside her.

It galls, _burns._

" _You're an idiot,"_ her brother informs her tartly.

" _And you're not?"_ she returns affably, and that's the end of their conversation.

"Enough of that country lingo," the Marine in front of them snaps, superiority etched deep into his very posture. "Are you aware that you have attacked Marines in the midst of conducting a search on your village, and as such have endangered the safety of your village by causing such a ruckus, such a delay?"

"Ain't no danger 'n first place, _sah."_

"Hm? What was that, girl?" the Marine casts a dismissive eye over her –and then something in him sharpens, sparks in interest. "I believe –did I hear you correctly? You admit to having connections to _pirates?"_

Cue complete moment of what-the-hell-kind-of-bullshit-is-this-guy-trying-to-pull-off-now.

"My, my, I'm afraid I can't let that stand. But… that, _conversation,_ should be held elsewhere, away from prying ears. And eyes." A low grin spreads across the man's lips, and the expression is something akin to a _leer._ Seeri frowns. "I'm sure that you will have much to say to me."

He reaches out a hand to cup her face, teasingly, mockingly–

And she bites him.

 _Hard._

…

Blood.

The coppery taste of blood is much more familiar in her mouth than it really should be, and someone screams –the Marine has a surprisingly shrill scream for such a baritone voice– and then it _burns._

(There are three knives that he had been holding in his other hand, and he instinctively slashes out at her when he feels teeth tearing through his palm, clamping down hard, and so he automatically does the first thing that comes to mind in ridding himself of this pain.

He gouges open her face.)

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* * *

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Pure, blank, mindless panic.

Fear.

… It is only natural to react this way after being attacked in such a vulnerable area. Her _face._ Even a life as a soldier had never led to such an attack; she knew how to deal with cuts and slashes along the arms, torso; she knew how to amputate a leg, she knew to squeeze out blood from a wound to prevent infections–

She should not have frozen up, but…

Her face.

Her face is cut open and hurt and _bleeding, so much blood–_

She can't see.

She can't see.

 _She can't see._

There is nothing but a hazy crimson mist spread out before her, a sea of red. Everything passes in a red blur –there is screaming, shouting; she trips and falls and scrambles to her feet again, someone kicks her, she stumbles, then there is the shadow of someone who lunges and–

She unconsciously takes a step backwards to steady herself, except.

Except she steps on nothing but the open air, and then she is falling, falling, _falling._

…

 _._

* * *

 _._

(Seeri is a village girl who practically grew up in the sea itself, swimming deep within the saltwater day in and day out, and sometimes people joke by saying that it would be easier to drown a fish than to drown a child of Ayoka. However, right now Seeri is hurt, bruised, bleeding; no matter the strength of her mind, it does not erase the weakness of her body.

She blacks out before she even hits the waves below.)

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* * *

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…

"Awake?"

Darkness.

Is she awake? Maybe.

"… _I… where am I? Why is it dark?"_ Her voice is soft, hoarse. It hurts to speak. Something stings on her face and pulls tight when she moves her lips, and so she stops and remains still.

"Didn't understand a word of that, I'm afraid. You a villager from these parts?"

Seeri is awake, and now acutely chilled and aware.

It's not a hallucination, not a disembodied voice, not an echo. A person. A masculine voice, to her right, speaking to her. _Speaking to her._

There is another person here.

(Wherever 'here' is. What happened? There were the Marines who raided the village, then Yune–)

"Who you?"

"Who _are_ you," the voice corrects her. "And as much as it is a relief that we won't have to communicate by using charades, I'm going to have to ask you to explain yourself first, falling down from the sky like that."

"… Mah-reens."

Surprisingly enough, it seems to be explanation enough for him.

"Marines, eh? I see."

"… You do?"

There is a brief silence in the air.

"My name is Jean Bart," the man says instead of responding directly. Then, in three words that suddenly explains everything about his reaction (or rather, lack thereof), "I'm a pirate."

* * *

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…

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Author's Notes:

Hi all! Starting a _One Piece_ fic here. Welcome to _pluck down the stars from heaven,_ everyone. :D

As some of you might know, I started this fic based on a request from a friend while I was on vacation –still am, actually, but I'll be coming back this weekend– and basically, she just really wanted to see another LawOC fic in the fandom and I have the freedom to do whatever else I wanted? (Scratches head)

… To be honest I haven't read very many existing _One Piece_ OC fics so I'm not sure what's standard for this sort of thing, and _personally_ I tend to prefer gen nowadays, but, well. Please bear with me while I'm still trying to sort things out here. :) I'm still crawling through reading the manga…

Also, since the _One Piece_ manga still has yet to be completed, be warned that there may either be some significant re-vamping in the future, or significant AU divergence from canon. We'll be seeing some AU-ness anyways, though I'm still not sure if I'll let Ace live or die in this story. But we won't be getting to that until a long ways yet. ;3 Don't be surprised if there's a lot of back and forth editing going on.

Law won't be appearing in this story for a while, either, so for anyone who might be looking forward to his entrance… please be patient.

In regards to the rating of the story: right now, I think it's safe to say that we have a T rating, but the T might change to M later on as we get into some darker elements. Violence, gore, etc. The whole Tenryuubito abusing slaves issue might earn this story a M rating when we get to it later, too, so. Consider this a fair warning here on what you might be getting yourselves into by reading this story!

There's a lot of background-setting stuff in this chapter, and I'm sorry if it all seems rather long-winded and tedious. Hopefully things will get better starting from the next chapter, yeah? :D

 **QUESTION:** Generally speaking, what would you look forward to seeing, or would like to see happen in an OC story for _One Piece,_ and what advice would you have to give?

Please leave a review~

Till next time,

XxZuiliu


	2. 1: 02 is where it starts

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Title: pluck down the stars from heaven

Rating: T for now, might be upped to M later due to violence and such.

Summary: Freedom is only an illusion until you possess the strength to reach out and grasp it with your own two hands. (Or: In which a soldier is reborn as a village girl in a world where piracy runs rampant, strange fruits grant superpowers, and the laws of physics are shot to hell.) [SI/OC, LawOC, AU]

Disclaimer: I do not own _One Piece._

(AN at the bottom of the chapter.)

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* * *

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Seeri does not think of herself as vain. It's quite the opposite, really; she has never quite been particularly considerate or picky in regards to her manner of dress, her overall appearance. So…

…

… Simply put, she is unused to being concerned with her looks in this manner. A military life preaching practicality had meant few instances of applying makeup or wearing dresses, a village known for pearl-diving means slipping into the cold waters instead of shops and dance squares. It's probably the general lack of any particular emphasis on beauty in her day-to-day activities that is to blame for her inattention … but even if she does not take time to doll up in front of a mirror, that does not mean she cares nothing for about her appearance at all.

This is why she bites down on something salty and bitter in the back of her throat as she blinks her single open eye, gazing steadily into the small pool of water below. She looks down at the face of a scrawny young scrap of a girl reflected back at her, and burns the image into her mind.

(Even if she does not like what she sees, that is no reason to reject reality.)

There are three ugly cuts slanting over tanned skin, red and raw underneath the thin layer of powdery blue medicine. Medicine that had been hastily applied sometime the night before; she does not remember when, exactly. One of the cuts reaches across her forehead to the tip of her ear, while another slices all the way down her left cheek in an imperfect line. The last one in the middle grazes right over her eye –Seeri cannot say for certain right now how bad the damage of this cut really is, but she fervently hopes to high heaven that her vision will not be compromised too badly because of it. She does not dare open that eye yet to check her condition, not with the wound so fresh and easy to tear.

… It's almost laughable. She does not know if her eye will heal properly, she does not know how her brother and her village fared after the altercation with Marines, she does not know what will happen next to her in this situation she has fallen into; but if there is any one thing she knows without a single shred of doubt, it is this:

She will never be considered pretty again.

And…

It's stupid, really.

It's such a stupid, petty thing to be focused on. Even though she knows she should be thankful that the Marine had only cut up her face instead of, say, stabbing her through the chest or something, her emotions are anything _but_ grateful in the aftermath of her survival.

She can already see the scars from this wound in her mind's eye –lumpy, uneven, lacerations over her face; fading to a light skin tone if she is lucky, angry red-brown if she is not.

It will be ugly.

… And somehow she is _still_ focused on that little fact instead of being happy to even be alive, which is… slightly concerning to her?

Because she remembers blood and war and the scent of gunpowder lingering in the air, she has crossed over battlefields stained crimson red, and… and apparently all it takes is cutting up her face to upset her like this? She remembers being shot in the arms, legs, torso; she remembers having had a knife stabbed through her shoulder, she remembers… she remembers suffering all sorts of injuries, but…

Nothing quite like this.

Nothing quite like what she has experienced at the hands of that Marine, nothing like the result of what she is looking at in the cold waters right now.

(Nothing like this, this infuriating disgrace, humiliation _._ Maybe that's why it hurts so much, she thinks, because it was a low-life scum who did this to her, and so it chaffs at her pride. She knows that pride is dangerous, but doesn't find herself caring about it anyways.

There is something coiled inside her that refuses to bow, that refuses to cower in fear. Instead it calls for blood; blood shed for blood spilled, angry and primitive and wild.)

Seeri carefully finishes splashing water onto her skin, cleaning out the cuts marring her face and re-applying more of the blue powder medicine to the injury, before wrapping cloth bandages over the wounds again. The entire process is brisk and quick, and soon she stands up again.

Time to meet her so-called 'saviors,' the pirates who had pulled her from the dark waters.

(There's no such thing as a free lunch, after all.)

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* * *

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Pirates.

The word can be used to describe a wide range of people –thieves, bandits, murderers– but even though Jean Bart is tall and of solid build, all hulking muscle and menacing strength as he towers over her, it does not seem as if he intends to kill her then and there… which makes sense. If he wants her dead, then he wouldn't have pulled her out of the water in the first place, anyways. Which begged the question of why he had bothered taking her to shore at all… what could a pirate like him possibly want from a young girl like her? What could a young waif of a village girl possibly have to offer to a pirate like him?

(Casting aside the whole being-older-than-her-physical-age-suggested business, strictly speaking.)

"Will you take us to your village?"

Seeri doesn't respond immediately. Instead, she lets her eyes travel over the ragtag group –there are five of them total scattered around the rocks, some relaxed under the shade of the outcropping overhead and others standing tall and straight. She doubts that this is the entirety of the crew, given the lack of a pirate ship in the general vicinity… Five isn't a particularly large number to speak of. Maybe she is looking at a group of scouts?

"… Ah could," she says in response to the question after a small pause, lips curving up into a smile-that-isn't-really-a-smile. "Nothin' left for you ta take, though."

An eyebrow is raised at her.

"Mah-reens."

Again, the single-word response itself is explanation enough, and she is not pressed any further on the topic.

(For all that Marines are lauded as heroes while pirates are painted as villains, it does not mean that people are _blind,_ even if many pretend to be in an effort to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble. What Yune really should've done last night instead of leaping unthinkingly at the Marines as he did was to look the other way and keep his anger at bay if he wanted to avoid trouble… though this reflection is useless in hindsight when all is said and done.

No, it does not surprise Seeri that these pirates appear to be fully aware of the abuse of power that certain Marines tend to indulge in.)

"Where is the city, then?" the man standing next to Jean Bart asks, and the sight is a bit comical, since Bart is so tall that his sheer size dwarfs anyone around him. "We need to go… er… um, go stock up on supplies. Yeah. So, uh, y'know… _city._ Big town. Giant… village?"

He waves his arms around in an exaggeration of 'big' in his attempt to convey his message to her. Most likely because her tongue stumbles more than a little bit while speaking standard, and so he assumes that her comprehension skills are equally as bad, if not worse. Which isn't true. Sadly, she cannot dispute that his worries are unfounded…

"The child can understand what you're saying perfectly fine, she just has terrible pronunciation," Jean Bart grumbles from above. The large man had been the first one to speak to her; he would know. "And stop flapping your arms like that. You look ridiculous, Colbert."

The resulting wounded expression that emerges on the blue-eyed man's face belongs to a kicked puppy.

"East," Seeri hides a small smile as she interjects between the group of pirates, informing them of the direction of their destination to-be before they can get derailed any more than they already have. "Distan' Radtep nah far. Reach 'fore sky… night?"

"The distance to Radtep isn't far, and can be reached before nightfall," Jean Bart corrects again, before nodding and turning his attention towards the other pirates. "In that case, let's get going, then."

Blue-eyed Colbert grins brightly as he reaches over and ruffles her hair. Around them, the rest of the pirates gather up their belongings as they prepare to travel again.

… She still finds it a little disconcerting that these pirates apparently don't intend on scavenging through Ayoka for any treasures that the Marines might have missed in their 'search.' But then again, if these pirates were as unfamiliar around this area as their questions of lack of knowledge of their local surroundings had implied, it's also possible they simply don't _know_ that the village she comes from is a pearl-diving one.

Best keep quiet about this little fact, then–

"Hey, Jean! I'm gonna take this little one back to her village, alright?" Colbert calls out, swinging her up into a piggyback ride like she weighs nothing at all. "Might as well make sure she doesn't slip and fall somewhere on these rocks if we went to the trouble of fishing her out in the first place, don't you think?"

"Suit yourself."

… Okay. Well.

She can deal with that.

It's not as if she can refuse the offer to take her back to Ayoka –after all, if they really want to go to the village, it's not as if she has enough strength to stop them if they make their way there by force. And she _had_ been rescued by them; maybe that counts for something? Only one pirate instead of the entire group of five should be easier for the village to handle, should any unfavorable situations arise.

It is at this point that she wonders whether she should have been as honest as she was in pointing these pirates towards Radtep. Radtep City, which was under the protection of Marines –actual protection, and not extortion (or at least, not as much extortion as was prevalent throughout the far countryside). What if the pirates want to head there to cause trouble or burn down the city itself?

The sunlight outside is blinding when it hits her face. Seeri automatically squints her single eye uncovered by bandages, reaching up a hand to shift the cloth wrappings hiding half her face and head. A quick check of the sun's position overhead makes it easy enough to pin the time somewhere around midmorning to noon, and with the gusty wind billowing over the cliffs, rolling over them like a tempest water-wave, Granny Haesse's prediction of a high storm is evident to the world.

(Or at least, to those who look and _see._ )

"You're a quiet one, aren't you?" Seeri blinks, and her attention returns to the man who is carrying her, who smiles and pats her head and carries her on his back like a young girl, and it's… it's not something she is entirely used to, either.

She will be twelve-going-on-thirteen as of this winter; by fourteen she will be expected to marry within the village. Seeri will be expected to become an adult in the eyes of Ayoka, and yet this blue-eyed pirate with a black bandanna tied over his head treats her like the child she physically is without even batting an eye as if this is entirely natural. Or perhaps it really is. She wouldn't know –cut off and secluded as Ayoka is, she is not in any position to be drawing any comparisons or conclusions on cultural practices of different places.

"You gave us quite the scare when we saw you floating there in the water," Colbert adjusts his grip on her, shifting so that she won't start slipping down with each step he takes along the narrow path of the cliff. It's entirely unnecessary, this whole being-piggybacked-by-a-pirate situation in the first place –it's only her face that's been cut up, the rest of her body is _fine,_ if a bit tired and sore from falling down to the waters as she did– but apparently the overly-friendly pirate thinks otherwise. "I can't believe any Marine would toss down a kid like that, asshole or not."

A sudden sharp, guilty pause.

"Er… you didn't hear anything just now, okay?"

Seeri stifles her inward smile at this reaction and instead bats innocent eyes at the shifty pirate carrying her. It might be due to the weight of her memories from another life, but she has never been quite good at using this 'doe-eyed' look that came so easily to the other children. Although it seems to be enough in this case, since Colbert breathes a sigh of relief and relaxes upon her feigned obliviousness.

"So," he starts again, cheerful and casual. "Your name is Seeri, right? Sounds kinda exotic, to be honest. Does everyone in your village have names like that?"

It's a strange topic to focus on, though she supposes that there are stranger topics to be asking after.

"Yes," she tugs lightly on the left shoulder of his coat, silently urging the man to take a left turn. "… Co-bay strange name, too."

"It's not strange!"

She laughs lightly at the man's indignant shout, and he gives a small huff.

"I'll have you know that my name is perfectly _normal,_ thank you very much," he says faux-haughtily. "And it's pronounced 'Coal-Bear,' not 'Co-bay.' That sounds like Coby…"

"Co-ber?"

"Coal- _bear._ "

"Co-bir."

"Getting close," the upbeat pirate encouraged. "Try saying it with me: Coalllll-bear."

It's a struggle to make her tongue obey; her mind knows the sound, the word, but it's hard to pronounce the common tongue properly after speaking nothing but the water-ripples and wind-wisps of Ayoka. There is no proper comparison, no real description for this struggle, but she thinks that speaking rigid common after knowing the flowing words of Ayoka is a bit like trying to hold water in a sieve or to catch the wind in a net. It's trying to hold something whose very nature is wild and free; after traversing high water-wavers and riding long wind-currents, how can one be simply satisfied by restricting themselves to firm, stable land?

She tries anyways, if only for the sake of proper communication and to play along with the pirate carrying her home.

"Coaaa… Coa…"

"There's an 'l' in this! C'mon, _Coalllll-bear._ "

"Coa… Coalll… bear?"

"That's it!" The blue-eyed man beams brightly, and his cheer is infectious. "Okay, now say it properly: Coal-bear."

"Coal… bear," she tests on her tongue. Slowly, at first, and then with increasing familiarity. "Coal bear. Coal-bear. _Colbert._ "

"You've got it!"

Laughter rings loudly throughout the air.

(… Pirates are strange.)

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* * *

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The silence in the village is strange, and it brings a small frown to Seeri's face. There are all sorts of silences that she has grown accustomed to –the eerie stillness that comes before bullets fly, the nighttime quiet where stealth trumps might, the blank darkness of fear, hesitation, when heading into the unknown. This particular silence isn't like any of them; nothing quite so dangerous, quite so dire, but it is… strange, for a village such as Ayoka.

It's the sort of silence that hints at something ill in the air. And while she can understand that, in the aftermath of a 'visit' from the Marines, this subdued atmosphere –there's something more to it, something that makes the entire thing… bitter, in a way, and it's _strange._

(There isn't really any other way she can express it, nothing that quite really fits when it all boils down to something like _intuition_ and she–)

" _Hello?"_ Seeri tests into the empty air from where she is perched on Colbert's back. The pirate seems to have caught on to something off about the village as well, though he voices no objections for the moment. _"Hello, hello?"_

"… _Seeri? You are… oh, stars and stones; bone of the black depths_ _…_ _no. No, no, listen to me for once in your life, girl. You must leave!"_

The stumbling, cracked voice comes from behind. She turns upon hearing the familiar tone, head tilting to the side ever so slightly in a questioning manner.

"' _Leave?'"_ she echoes, _"What are you talking about, Granny?"_

The elderly grandmother sighs from where she is standing over the jagged salt-white rocks, wrinkled hands folding themselves over the gnarled knob of her walking stick. It makes for an uncommon sight, the grizzled old woman standing alone amongst the rocks –without any of the young folk of Ayoka surrounding her, supporting her, it makes her seem ever so brittle and frail, despite the fiery temper she had been known for in her youth.

Where are the other villagers?

" _It is good to see that you are still safe, Seeri."_ Granny Haesse smiles, but the light does not reach her eyes. _"Though, you will not be for much longer if you stay here in the village. You must fly, dear child."_

A small frown crosses over the young girl's face at these words.

" _I don't understand."_

" _No, you do."_ the elderly woman shakes her head almost violently, messy white hair weaving out a tangled silver web in the air. _"Think, girl! Don't you remember? Today we honor His Lordship, the High Lord of the White Coast_ _–_ _"_

" _I know that, Granny–"_

" _Clearly that clever mind of yours isn't working properly today. Seeri, when that nasty young man forced you off the cliff –we thought you were_ dead. _"_ Granny Haesse scowled. _"So this morning, Chief decided to switch Kash's name with yours in the ceremony; don't you know what it means?"_

Seeri does, and her eyes narrow.

The celebration held in honor of the Lord of the Coast –the so-called 'Lord' is a deity, more or less, in these parts. The Lord of the Coast is the deity of the waters of these cliffs, and so the Lord is honored by the villagers who make their living on these waters. The so-called celebration is in fact a yearly ritual that calls for sacrifice.

 _Human_ sacrifice.

It's not so much the blood and flesh and pale white bones that matter in the ritual here as it is the very sacrifice itself, death wrought to coax life from the deep waters. The fresh corpse, carefully cut to pieces before being cast out to sea, is but a simple, negligible step in the process. The mind, the spirit, the soul of the deceased –always a child, not for innocence and purity like the village shaman claims it is, but for the very simple reality that a child is not capable of diving as deeply into the sea for oysters as an adult is– flies. Upon death, the following ritual ensures that the soul of the deceased child flies up into the midnight sky and makes its way out to sea, as a sacrifice for the Lord of the Coast, to ask for a boon. A wish. A plea, to beg for another plentiful year.

Seeri thinks that if such a thing were ever to happen to _her,_ she would probably ask the Lord of the Coast to drown the old village shaman instead of bless the village. Maybe it's just the influence of her beliefs from a life long past speaking here, but she questions even the existence of this 'High Lord of the White Coast' in the first place. She can't help but think that it's entirely fake, that it's all these silly beliefs and superstitions holding Ayoka back from moving forwards, and… really.

Seeri doesn't dislike her village, contrary to what these words might imply. She just doesn't love it, either. The general peace and quiet of Ayoka is something she finds soothing, yes, and the wind and waves and ocean blue has grown to touch her heart over the years, but this and that are two different things. As for the people within the village –aside from her brother, forever smiling, and her grandmother, forever grumpy, there are few that she can truly connect with on any level, which… maybe is for the best, in the end.

" _Where is everyone?"_ she asks.

" _Purifying themselves in the clearwaters to prepare for the ceremony."_ Granny Haesse slowly begins hobbling over. _"Leave before they come back, Seeri. The shaman has already carved your name into the eye of the sea, there is no changing things anymore. If they see that you are still alive –you will die, Seeri. And this time, it will be for real."_

(Let them come, a part of her snarls. Let them try. Let them try to kill me, and I will throw them to sea and hold them under until they drown in darkness.)

She eyes her grandmother carefully.

"… _Why are you warning me of this Granny? Do you want to anger the Lord of the Coast by stealing his sacrifice away?"_

" _Brat,"_ the aged woman's voice is more fondness than irritation, strangely enough. _"Do you want to make me regret warning you? Scat, now. Let the wind beneath your feet carry you lightly."_

" _As the wind will speed my journey, so might it carry my voice to yours swiftly; tied by the wind, we are but mere droplets in the ocean."_ Seeri shakes her head, _"Granny, if anyone finds out–"_

" _They won't."_

It's… warming. This protectiveness, this concern. For all that her proclaimed parents treated her well, Seeri knows them well enough to guess that they would not have thought twice about taking her back to the village so she can be killed at the altar. She is lucky that her grandmother is the first villager she meets upon her return to Ayoka.

" _Not even Yune?"_ Her brother. Seeri smiles. _"Are you going to keep this secret from him?"_

…

The old grandmother hesitates a moment too long in responding this time, and Colbert makes a choking noise in his throat when the little girl's arms looped around his neck tighten a bit too hard.

" _Granny…"_

" _Seeri–"_

" _Don't 'Seeri' me, Granny; what's wrong with Yune?"_ her eyes narrow in thinly-veiled suspicion, _"… The Marines. Did they do something to him? Did something happen to him last night?"_

Granny Haesse purses her lips and says nothing.

" _You have no right to keep this information from me,"_ her voice is sharp. _"Yune is my brother."_

" _Show some respect for your elders, brat."_ The tired reprimand is half-hearted at best. _"… The Marines took him into custody for 'assaulting an official.' Today as we honor the Lord of the Coast, the inlanders will be performing that Water Festival of theirs. Seeri, Yune is–"_

Yune. Water Festival.

"… _even listening anymore? Brat–"_

(Small villages, small coastal villages, hold a small ceremony to honor the High Lord of the White Coast. Inlanders, those who don't live quite so close to the wild waves but nonetheless show respect for the sea where the majority of goods for their trade comes from –they perform a ceremony as well; not quite as complicated as the chants and prayers of small villages tend to be. It's simple. Very simple.)

There is another name for this Water Festival, Seeri knows.

The Fountain Festival. The Fountain Festival of Life.

And, mockingly, in certain circles–

 _The Butcher's Red Fountain._

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* * *

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"Okay," Colbert's brow twitches. "I get that apparently something important happened just now, but if none of you have realized by this point – _I don't speak a single word of your language,_ so can someone _please_ explain to me what the bloody hell is going on because all of this is going straight over my head?!"

"Nah, too mahch trubb." Granny Haesse waves a wrinkled hand dismissively at the pirate. "An' you… suck, so no. Bye-bye."

 _"OI!"_

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…

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Author's Notes:

 **NOTE:** Since little has been revealed about Jean Bart's personality in the manga to date ( **8/15/2015** as of the first posting of this chapter), be forewarned that the Jean Bart portrayed in this story may not match up to the personality of the Jean Bart from the manga when/if he gets more official screen time. The same goes for the Heart Pirates who will show up later on, and… minor characters in general, I guess.

Again – _some parts of this story may not be canon simply since the manga simply hasn't been completed yet_. There is an AU warning in the label of this story for a _reason,_ so please keep that in mind as the story progresses _._

Anyways, I finally finished catching up to the latest chapters of the manga –next arc should be about the adventures in Zou and Wano, right? :D Can't wait for that to come out.

… No, Seeri won't be encountering Law for the first time via slave auction, for those who've asked about it. Does it really happen in fanfics so often? I think I've mentioned this in the last chapter, too, but it'll be awhile before Law even shows up here…

Expect to see several OCs throughout the introductory stage before most of the canon cast comes in. And before anyone asks why Seeri seems rather blasé about everything that's going on so far –remember that she is already somewhat accustomed to adapting to sudden changes under various circumstances; even though she's not a soldier on the battlefield anymore, the rules still apply. Also, there aren't very many people that she is actually attached to. She is close to Yune and her Granny Haesse, as evident from the (few) interactions shown so far. As for anyone else, well…

There is planned to be some exploration into the corruption of authority in this fic. It's pretty big in canon _One Piece-_ verse, too, isn't it? :D

In regards to when the next update will happen –unfortunately, I will be extremely busy starting next week onwards since I'll be starting college soon, so I can't guarantee any consistent (or even semi-consistent) updates. I can only say that I'll do my best to keep on writing during this time. :3

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 **QUESTION(1):** List three characters that you are looking forward to seeing most portrayed in this story. :) Any particular reasons why?

 **QUESTION(2):** Any recommendations for good _One Piece_ fanfics? … Or feel free to recommend your own; I'll try to drop by before free time disappears entirely for me again. :'D

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Leave a review with your thoughts on this chapter, please~ Reviews usually lead to quicker updates. xD

Till next time

XxZuiliu


	3. 1: 03 before slipping into

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Title: pluck down the stars from heaven

Rating: T for now, might be upped to M later due to violence and such.

Summary: Freedom is only an illusion until you possess the strength to reach out and grasp it with your own two hands. (Or: In which a soldier is reborn as a village girl in a world where piracy runs rampant, strange fruits grant superpowers, and the laws of physics are shot to hell.) [SI/OC, LawOC, AU]

Disclaimer: I do not own _One Piece._

(AN at the bottom of the chapter.)

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Human sacrifice.

It is not something particularly new and shocking to the long annals of human history, but it is not something that Seeri can fully explain, fully rationalize, either. There is something very primal about it all, beneath the cover of ruthless brutality and raw cruelty. Something that makes the pulse quicken and the heart race –and although Seeri has never been fully able to identify it, not exactly, she has always been keenly aware of this sensation. It's not something that someone like her can accurately pin down so easily, though.

In the world she remembers having lived in once upon a time ago, she knows that human sacrifices had certainly _existed_. Not as something mainstream nor widely accepted in modern times, but it had certainly lingered in various cultures, even despite having its grisly carcass splayed across popular historical texts, all but visibly dripping with the scorching blood of condemnation and rejection.

Things are different here, though.

Here, the Marines do nothing against the practice of human sacrifice. Never have, and Seeri knows that they never will. Because the government of this world, the World Government –does not care.

 _Tenryuubito,_ she thinks, and the word means nothing to her.

Ayoka is a village much too small for any heavy attention, any sharp scrutiny, and so there is not much that she knows about the whispered _Gorosei_ council and their kind. Nothing, aside from the common knowledge of knowing _Tenryuubito_ as World Nobles, as the ones who own and rule all in this world. Who dress in soft silks and velvets while others scrounge for coarse rags, who gorge themselves on fine delicacies while others starve, who step with their heads held high because the world turns according to their will, while others are crushed to dust beneath their feet.

 _Tenryuubito_ means nothing to Seeri, for the very simple fact that these heavenly dragons, no matter how superior they think themselves, no matter how much they elevate themselves above the common populace… in the end, they are only human. She would know. Where mankind exists, there will always be _Tenryuubito._

… So no, _Tenryuubito_ does not mean anything to her, and she very much doubts that it ever will.

In the eyes of the _Tenryuubito_ , human lives, the lives of the people –mean absolutely nothing to them _._ And considering that it is the _Tenryuubito_ who rule this world… why, then, would it come as any surprise to her? To anyone at all, really?

Why would the widespread silent acceptance of human sacrifice as a celebrated practice in these parts come as any surprise?

…

"I can't believe it. _I can't believe it. What kind of village murders its own children like that?"_

"… You just rep-eeting you self, Colbert," she says, in the slightly-exasperated kind of way that only comes across as the result of hearing multiple variations of what is essentially the same thing over and over and over again. The pirate is still insistently carrying her on his back, had insisted on carrying her when they left the village. Left Ayoka.

(She marvels at why this pirate chooses to humor a young scrap of a girl like herself, wonders how long it will take for him to tire of this charade and throw her away. It wouldn't be anything new, not if the stories of pirates that she knows hold any truth to them.)

" _Repeating,_ Seeri," he shakes his head, "'You _are_ repeating yourself'… I don't even know why I bothered to correct that."

She gives a quiet shrug, and they lapse into a quiet, blessed silence. A silence which is broken all too soon.

"Are you… Are you feeling alright?"

For a moment, the question about her wellbeing strikes her as a bolt out of the blue. Then Seeri puts two and two together: Colbert's adamant rage towards the village's embrace of this yearly ritual that he had ranted on and on about ever since stepping out of Ayoka, now coupled with concern for the child who would've been killed by her own villagers had she insisted on staying in the village…

(Why does he care? This has nothing to do with him, nothing at all. He does not know me, I do not know him. We are still all but strangers to each other at this point. So why does he care, then?)

Had she been anyone else, had Seeri been a true simpleminded young village girl who learned that her own village planned to kill her by butchering her to tiny pieces alive –perhaps she would've broken down crying in this moment as the magnitude of what she had narrowly escaped finally came crashing down upon her. Heavens know how many times she has seen that happen before, time and time again in Ayoka, as children learned of their fates to die for the High Lord.

But she isn't.

Seeri isn't a normal little village girl of a pearl-diving village, and so that isn't what happens.

(It will never happen.)

She knows enough of fear to be aware that fear in moderation breeds caution, while too much of it will only be counter-productive. She knows enough of tears to understand that tears will not change reality. She knows that weaknesses will only be exploited in the end _._

So she doesn't say anything at all, merely humming softly.

"Seeri?"

It is in this moment that the young girl abruptly wonders if it is part of her upbringing in this world, where she has almost grown used to this practice of human sacrifice, that makes her so very blasé to it all. Whereas it once would've ignited vehement flames burning inside her heart, now there is very little that she feels. For all that she herself detests the idea of becoming the sacrificial lamb this year, there is surprisingly little frustration that she feels towards her fellow villagers at large. Perhaps it is because she has never overly cared for the village in the first place –or perhaps it is because she knows of parents who will use their own children as shields from bullets, and children who will turn on their own parents with knives in their hands.

So what's bearing witness to one more case, upon this many?

"… Am fine, Colbert," she finally says. The man's expression is one of pure 'I-don't-believe-you,' but it's really the honest truth here. There is no need for her to lie about this. Seeri honestly, truly doesn't _care._ "Am nah bother'd. Appens ev'ry yeer. Jus unlucky tis self 'is time."

She smiles. She smiles, and a small flicker of irritation alights in her chest when something in the older man's eyes turns soft and a little pitying. Because this is not something she needs pity for, nor does she ever desire to receive pity for anything. She doesn't say anything, though, even as Colbert shifts her a little higher on his back and continues on with quick strides.

… If nothing else, it is most clear to her that he is certainly a strange, strange pirate.

Although Ayoka doesn't see very many visits from pirates, mainly owing to its hazardous location up upon the sea cliffs overlooking the ocean blue, for all its seclusion that does not mean Ayoka is cut off from the rest of the world. It's usually when the traveling caravans of traders and merchants come along that most news regarding the menace of the seas are exchanged, and it's through these businessmen that the numerous exploits of violent pirates are told, of bloody tales both near and afar.

And while Seeri is acutely aware that such stories passed along by word of mouth are prone to exaggeration with each re-telling, there are enough similarities dispersed throughout these tales that certain grains of truth –or at least, what seems to be the truth– can be carefully sifted out and brought into the light to be examined.

She can't really say anything for the other pirates of this motley crew she has encountered, but Colbert… very obviously does not match up to what is commonly espoused of pirates.

Being fished out of the waters, saved from drowning, those can be passed off as simply wanting to learn more about the local surroundings. Being piggy-backed to her home village, however… and now being taken along with him simply because of wanting to travel to Radtep, of wanting to find her brother who had been brought to the city by Marines, before it was too late–

Why.

 _Why?_

It doesn't make sense to her. Nothing about these pirates makes sense to her, least of all Colbert.

Where jewels and riches flow, pirates follow –and along the way, those who stand in their path are cut down most brutally. It is commonly espoused, and is what commonly happens. From what she has seen of his character and personality so far, Colbert does not seem like the type of man to indulge in such vices, but who is she to say for certain?

… She does not think she would care much even if he turns out to be exactly such a man, anyways. All she wants to do is to find Yune, and as long as Colbert and his crew does not interfere with that, she could care less what they choose to do in Radtep City.

(Does this make her a bad person?)

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* * *

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Radtep is not a particularly affluent city rolling in wealth, not like Derge or Viercaa, the two sprawling metropolises that Seeri has only heard of through rumor alone before. Those names hardly come up in common conversations, but back when a family of _Tenryuubito_ had deigned to come and visit this land a long time ago, those names had been heard nearly every single day.

In regards to Radtep City itself, even though it is not a golden city of endless riches, that does not change the fact that Radtep is still leagues upon leagues better than Ayoka in terms of living conditions and general welfare, which is… no surprise, really.

Perhaps, if Seeri really is a simpleminded village girl who has never seen anything outside of rundown huts and cliff side crevices before, she would be struck dumb by the sights she now sees before her. The colorful streamers running ribbons through the air, the fragrant flowers scattered along the streets, the innumerous lanterns being hung up along the rooftops in preparation for the festivities this night.

As it is, the little girl simply lowers her head, ducking and hiding the wounded side of her face against Colbert's back to avert attention to the otherwise conspicuous injury and quietly lets the man carry her over to an alleyway, where the crowd of city-people grows sparse.

Yune.

She needs to find Yune and get him _out_ –before his blood joins that of the annual Red Fountain. _The Butcher's Red Fountain._ This festival is tradition in these parts, ancient tradition that has never been questioned before. That she herself would not even bother to go about trying to flout, to openly reject, if not for Yune.

Brother.

Because Yune… there are many, many things that she can say about Yune, about the moments they shared together. About diving together into the deep waters where no one else will brave the choking, freezing currents, about running together sea-foam light over the white sands under a haze of dark storm clouds spiraling up into the raging heavens. There are many, many things that she can say, but it's all so very meaningless in the end, because in the end only one thing matters: Seeri does not want to see her brother die.

… She does not want him to die, _period,_ and that's all the reason she needs.

(More than enough reason, she privately reaffirms to herself, but does not say the words aloud. There is no need to, no real meaning in doing so, and so she doesn't.)

The Water Festival, the Water Festival of Life. The Butcher's Red Fountain.

These terms are all interchangeable with each other. They are one and the same, merely different names for what amounts to the same thing. This is a festival in which the unwanted are taken out to the center square, and bled dry in the reverent name of the High Lord of the White Coast.

Unwanted.

Who are the unwanted? Those who have failed to contribute a certain amount of capital to the city for the year, for one. Those who fail to hold themselves to what is considered proper conduct, who are then deemed lazy and slothful and thus unneeded by Radtep. Those who have committed certain crimes, who have been brought into the city's holding cell on various charges. There are a dozen other cases besides for those qualifying as the unwanted, as sacrifices for Radtep's ritual, but Seeri knows that Yune would fall into the third category, remembering Granny Haesse's words of Yune having been brought in by the Marine officer that night, and where else would they take him to if not the holding cells?

It will be at midnight today, when the festival begins. She will have until midnight to find her brother.

Seeri herself has never been to Radtep City before. What few things she knows of it all come from the traders that pass through Ayoka, which isn't much in terms of detailed descriptions of the layout of the city itself. It is a good thing that she is not an airheaded little village girl who has seen nothing of the world outside her home village before, because Radtep is much, much larger than Ayoka, and she has no doubt that everything would be so very horribly disorienting otherwise.

(Seeri remembers skyscrapers towering high above the ground and brushing the sun, remembers bustling cities where even the night seems to be but a mirror reflection of the day; she has swam through marshy swamplands and crept through opulent mansions alike. In comparison to what she has seen, in comparison to what she has witnessed, in comparison to what she knows… it is going to take a lot more than a simple city like Radtep to rattle her.)

She will have to change her clothes. Her current rags clearly mark her as a country bumpkin, and while she is thin and small enough to pass off as a street rat, she will be a very conspicuous street rat if she dresses so. Perhaps rummaging through the dumpsters to find something more suited to blending in behind the gutters would work. Then she would be better able to search for Yune; a central place like the holding cell for criminals shouldn't be particularly hard to find in a city–

"What do you plan on doing?"

Colbert.

Seeri turns to face the man who has carefully set her upon the ground, the pirate who has carried her on his back all the way here to Radtep, from high noon until dusk. His voice is one of concern as he looks at her with blue, blue eyes, straightening to his full height as he gets up from his crouch and stands tall once again.

"What er you 'ere for?" she counters his inquiry with, and there is nothing accusing in her voice, nor is there curiosity. The words are said almost as if in statement, as an errant comment on the weather, because what else can pirates be in a city like Radtep for? "Fes-val mean man-ee be dis'tracked. Good tahm for pirates… re-stock."

"That… is _not_ actually why we're here," Colbert pinches the bridge of his nose. "… Even though I kinda said that before but I wasn't really… but I digress. Seeri, don't do anything rash. If the Marines catch you–"

"Nah Mah-reens be needin' worry 'bout," the young girl smiles blandly. "Colbert silly. Fes-val o' Water at midnight 'oday."

"Yes, I know that this festival will mean that most people will be distracted and not paying attention to things they need to be! The Marines will most likely be out and about, policing the streets, but that doesn't mean you can be careless about this, Seeri. Even if you're just a kid, they'll–"

She shakes her head.

"Colbert _lissen,_ 'kay? Nah Mah-reens needin' worry. Fes-val. Colbert, fes-val is needin' worry."

Even with her broken fragments of the standard tongue being so jumbled up, _something_ about the serious countenance that has overcome her voice seems to finally get across to the pirate.

"Seeri–"

"Fes-val. Fes-tee-val o' Water," she says shortly. "Colbert know wha' fes-val is?"

"… The Festival of Water. Isn't that just… I dunno, playing around with water, eating and drinking food? Something about honoring a coastal sea deity?"

There is slight confusion mixed within his words, which would explain his ignorance to the situation at large.

"You nah en-tie-ly wrong," she nods. "Know 'Utcher found in?"

"Do I know _what_ found _what?"_

… _This_ is why she does not like speaking standard. It's such a _hassle._ "Do you know… Butcher Red Foun-ten?"

The blank look she receives from the pirate explains everything. Or rather, it explains his entire lack of reaction to the festival at large –and, honestly, she really should have expected it full well from the very beginning. Colbert is a pirate. He and his crew, Jean Bart and the others, have only recently came to these parts in North Blue, so it makes sense that they would be unfamiliar with the cultural practices here. Hadn't they shown unfamiliarity to the terrain at large, too? Hadn't that been why they had asked her for directions to the nearest city in the first place?

"Fes-val o' Water…" she pauses.

(How to describe it? How to describe such a bloody celebration, celebrated tradition, tradition of blood like this?)

She falls silent for a moment, words of the common language escaping her. "… Like… Colbert. Colbert, you know why I nah stayin' en village, righ'?"

"Yeah. Didn't that crazy old granny say something about a sacrificial ritual that you…" his eyes widen, mind finally comprehending the implications of what she is suggesting here. "Oh. _Oh._ Oh, for… You don't mean that the _same thing_ is happening _here,_ too?"

"'Appens 'ere, too." Seeri confirms. It happens everywhere around these parts. Everywhere, every year. "'Yoka small village, jus one child be needin' an enough. Radtep is city, 'uch bigger. Be needin' much more people–"

"Seeri," his hands are rough, weathered, callused. More a fighter's hands than a sailor's hands, but that's only something she notices vaguely as the pirate seizes her shoulders, something akin to urgency underscoring his movements now. "Seeri, _please_ tell me it's not what I think it is."

How curious. This reaction –maybe, perhaps it really wasn't gold that Colbert and his fellow pirates had set their eyes on, coming to Radtep City?

"Is 'zactly what you think," she confirms needlessly. "Many people be given 'ta High Lord o' Cosse, for… pra-speh-ress year."

"How… how do they go about," Colbert falters and grimaces. "How do they go about choosing these people who will be 'given to the High Lord of the Coast?'"

… Even back when Colbert had set foot in Ayoka, he hadn't seemed particularly interested in rummaging through for any treasures. Walking along the streets of Radtep, all the shiny trinkets and gleaming jewels lining store windows for luxurious goods hadn't caught his eye, either. Was it a person that this pirate crew was looking for, then? A person being held in Radtep?

But… if they really were looking for someone, one would think that they would at least research well the terrain beforehand. And they had asked her for the closest city, not Radtep in particular. What was this pirate crew's goal here in Radtep? If not to loot and pillage, what were they searching for? What did they hope to accomplish?

(This, this would be her curiosity speaking for her here.)

… And, really. The tight note of worry in Colbert's voice, so much greater than any concern or regard he had shown for her so far, a vast ocean compared to a tiny droplet in the tumultuous sea–

Probably someone precious that they are searching for here in Radtep, then.

"Silly Colbert," she reaches out and pats his cheek. "Why be askin'? You already know ans-er."

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Author's Notes:

Conscience: You should be studying for midterms. You really should be studying for midterms. Go and study for midterms!

Me: …

Me: (Finishes writing chapter 3 of _pluck down the stars from heaven_ )

Conscience: Oh my gawd.

…

… So, as I mentioned in the last chapter, I've started college. And college life is… really busy, so apologies for being slow in updating. I'm growing rather fond of _pluck down the stars from heaven,_ though, so it's unlikely that I'll be discontinuing it. I think. Maybe? :D … At any rate, please bear with me while I try to work through the next chapter and balance the workload from college at the same time. And go study for midterms right now.

 _I received a review in the last chapter questioning why human sacrifice was even a practice that was allowed here by the government. I hope it was explained well enough at the beginning of this chapter, but if not, please feel free to ask for more details._

Also, I believe I already mentioned this before, but… it's going to take quite awhile for Law to even show up in this story, for all that this is supposed to be a LawOC story. So. Patience, please!

Seeri's exploits in Radtep will be continued in the next chapter. I'm actually looking to see if I can wrap up things in Radtep within the next two-ish chapters, but we'll see how the pacing goes for that. I want to do a decent job of portraying the events that will happen, but neither do I want it to start dragging on endlessly for no apparent reason, either. And if anything gets too lengthy or wordy for your tastes, please let me know so I can watch out for that and try to keep from having mindless word-dumps simply for the sake of having my readers suffer along with me while I take my midterms. :D

Not exactly sure if _pluck down the stars from heaven_ will be the next of my stories to be updated, because I kind of want to work on _Onwards Till Dawn_ or _As Fire Blazes on the Horizon_ for a bit when time permits, so we'll see how things go. :3

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I have a small **poll** posted up on my **profile** , just asking what categories/fandoms people would like to see me start dabbling in or make more effort to update faster for. Because plot bunnies run in circles around me and I have trouble trying to decide on what I want to focus on writing…

Please head over and **vote!** :D

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 **QUESTION(1):** Is there anything set up in the story so far that you would like to see explained or elaborated upon in further detail? Such as the question regarding human sacrifice that I was asked in the last chapter, or anything else that comes to mind, really.

 **QUESTION(2):** This is actually unrelated to _pluck down the stars from heaven._ For people who've read _a sky of glass_ (the only other One Piece fic I have up on my account so far), I'm thinking of combing through it again sometime for editing, since it was basically written and posted in one long sitting. And on that note, I want to make it clear that while I _like_ the ending for it, I'm also deliberating whether or not to make a continuation showing the Marineford battle, so. Any opinions on this?

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 _Leave a review with your thoughts on this chapter, please~_

Till next time

XxZuiliu


	4. 1: 04 chaos and mayhem

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Title: pluck down the stars from heaven

Rating: Tentative T, but not 'T' for 'Tentative,' if that makes any sense. ;3

Summary: Freedom is only an illusion until you possess the strength to reach out and grasp it with your own two hands. (Or: In which a soldier is reborn as a village girl in a world where piracy runs rampant, strange fruits grant superpowers, and the laws of physics are shot to hell.) [SI/OC, LawOC, AU]

Disclaimer: I do not own _One Piece._

(AN at the bottom of the chapter.)

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Carefully, Seeri pries off the cloth bandages around her face.

As useful as they are for the cuts across her face in respect to sanitary purposes, they will only be a liability if she wants to pass herself off as a simple street rat. No child abandoned to the streets would be caught in possession of clean materials like these, so if she continues to keep them on the only thing she will succeed in accomplishing is drawing attention, which is precisely what she wants to _avoid_ at the moment _._

On the other hand, a few scratches and a small scattering of injuries, ranging from the serious to the severe over arms and legs –things like these would quite common for homeless street urchins to possess. Maybe such an injury on the face would still give a brief startle at first glance; after all, a person's facial features are what most focus on upon initial encounters, and a scarred face is… unnerving, unsettling. But it wouldn't be anything too strange, nothing to be completely baffled over.

… Besides, most everyone's attentions would be focused on the festivities tonight. Going along with that line of thought, it would make sense for street rats should be overlooked more so than usual on this day. This is the only positive aspect that she can see coming out of this celebration so far for her plans of finding Yune, but then again –it's precisely because of this very celebration that her brother's life is in danger, so she can only look upon this festival with mixed feelings.

Colbert is gone, had left the moment it sank into his mind that his friend could be facing mortal danger.

She doesn't think much about it.

(Really.

… It honestly doesn't matter to her what he does, _it honestly doesn't_. After all, it is only around a day of her having met the man in total, and while the man's character appears to be somewhat acceptable, their relation is strictly only that of a pirate and a young village girl. A village girl who had both the misfortune to encounter pirates while injured, and the fortune to be saved by pirates while weakened.

She doesn't think anyone would believe her if she ever happens to tell them such a laughable tale. Points for entertainment, for imagination and creativity, maybe.)

"Out of the way!"

Seeri stumbles when a burly man in a kitchen scullion's clothes bumps into her, carrying armfuls of boxes overflowing with fruits and making a beeline for the town square. It is just as well that he is much too preoccupied with the materials in his arms to pay attention to his surroundings; otherwise, he might have seen a small smile flicking over the lips of one of the diminutive street urchins that he barrels over in his haste.

She scuttles away, head down, fingers idly playing over a small slip of a newly-acquired knife in her hands. A vegetable-cutting knife from a lowly kitchen assistant who is yelled at by his superiors day in and day out in his work –but nonetheless a knife. This will be useful.

(Thievery?

… Well.

In her mind, Seeri has the memories of a woman who had once been a soldier prior to her bloody death. That doesn't mean that prior to her death, the woman had always been an upstanding soldier. Not all soldiers happened to be proud and upstanding, anyways. _That_ is just a fairytale.)

She lurks around the corners, travels in the gutters, always quick on her feet and avoiding confrontation with others whenever possible. Because even if regular citizens of the city will mistake her for a street rat with a careless glance, Seeri knows better than to assume that street rats themselves will do the same. They have their own circles, their own communities –and she is a total stranger to them all. But Seeri has no plans of staying in Radtep any longer than what is necessary, and so there is no need to approach them and attempt to build connections of any sort. There is no use for that.

She is going to find the place where sacrifices for the Butcher's Fountain are being held, and she is going to get her brother _out,_ before thinking about what to do next. Going back to Ayoka is certainly something that will have to be crossed off the list, but the world is a wide place –surely there will be plenty of places to settle.

(Someday in the distant future, Seeri reflects back on this moment and laughs at herself, at her naivety. For what better word is there to describe this simpleminded, lackluster attitude with?)

It's… certainly less of a challenge to move around than she had initially thought it would be.

Seeri is not familiar in the least with the winding paths of Radtep City and so it is easy to get lost, but it doesn't take too long for her to familiarize herself with the basic layout of the city after a few runs. There is a mental map of the streets in her mind, one that she unfurls within her mind's eye as she closes her eyes and _thinks._

The sacrifices –it's unlikely that citizens will allow them to remain unguarded and have the chance to escape, not with the festival drawing so close and so near. That immediately strikes out the residential districts, and means it's much more likely that the sacrifices will be found somewhere close to the authorities. The heart of the city, perhaps? The town square. Seeri knows that they will not be held _directly_ next to where the festivities will take place; it is only just nightfall right now, and the ceremony is to take place at midnight. Somewhere close, though. Probably.

It's okay. She still has time to search. Not indefinitely, but she thinks she will make it in time.

 _Where are you, Yune?_

Absent-mindedly, Seeri spares a thought to wonder if Colbert and Bart and the rest of the pirates are having any success on their end. Maybe, maybe not. They are grown men fully capable of handling themselves, and dangerous pirates to boot –but there are certain advantages to being a tiny little underfed girl that makes it easier to slip around unnoticed during the onset of nightfall in a bright city.

Well, she's sure that they're doing just fine.

She should be focusing on the task in front of her right now –namely, finding and entering the building where sacrifices for the festival are being held.

 _This is your task: locate the enemy stronghold and enter unnoticed, retrieve the target and retreat. You are on a solo mission with no backup, and the only tools you have in your possession are stained bandages and a hastily-procured vegetable knife from that kitchen assistant who is too much of an idiot to pay attention to his surroundings._

 _Advantages: You have a small build and you are a little slip of a girl, which makes it easy for you to pass under the radar. As long as you are not caught, no one will look twice in your direction._

 _Disadvantages: You are a little slip of a girl without any real combat and infiltration skills other than the knowledge that exists in your memories. There are Marines patrolling the streets of this city._

 _Time limit: You have until midnight._

 _(Success rate: … Unknown, but that won't stop you from trying.)_

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Seeri remembers how a long time ago, there had been a day in which Yune had sat atop the cliffs, holding a small, tattered box in his hands and staring over out at white-crested ocean waves hitting the silver-sand shores.

" _What are you doing here?"_ she'd asked him.

He hadn't responded, not immediately.

"… _Do you hear it?"_

Perplexed by the words, Seeri had blinked in complete incomprehension at the normally lively boy, who seemed to be ever so distant and _weary_ in that moment –like an old man looking out at the sea. His shoulders had been hunched slightly, and he dropped his gaze to the little box cupped in his palms.

" _Yune?"_

" _I can hear it,"_ the lethargy vanished. Yune looked up again, and this time his eyes were bright and youthful, blazing with some sort of trembling emotion –excitement, awe, wonder? Even now, thinking back on the moment, Seeri is hesitant to say anything for certain. _"The sea, I can hear the Voice of the Sea, just like the old stories say. The sea is calling to me, Seeri."_

Yune had always been the heart and laughter of gentle wind over midsummer waves, light and teasing. But when he had been speaking of the sea's call to him at that time –that faraway look in his eyes: delight, triumph, he had been practically _enthralled_ by the wide expanse of the sea spread out before them… and that was when Seeri had _known_ that Ayoka would not hold her brother forever. It was a village to small and too constricting for someone like him, who held the ocean in his eyes.

 _The Voice of the Sea, the Call of Ocean Waves, Return to the Deep Waters From Whence We Came–_

There is a difference between leaving of one's own accord and leaving because one had been captured by Marines, however. The latter was never something that Seeri had thought would ever happen to her brother, but… reality has always had a way of ruining things, she supposes.

Kind of like what's happening right now.

 _"Run! Oh my god, where are the Marines when you need them?!"_

 _"Pirates! Pirates are attacking!"_

 _"Someone get rid of them, they'll ruin the Water Festival!"_

Chaos. Pure chaos. People gathered in the town square are trampling over each other in their haste to _run_ and _get out,_ because there are _murderous pirates on the loose what the fuck the Marines where are the Marines?!_ Screams and shouts, pushing and shoving each other out of the way in a mad rush to escape–

Seeri feels stupid for having wasted her efforts on spending the better half of an hour carefully observing and planning how to enter the jailhouse undetected and unnoticed, only to be met with this ridiculous situation. Very, very stupid.

 _Pirates._

Something in Seeri's chest heaves out a long-suffering sigh, because _really._ Really, is this how the pirates are going to go about doing this? Saving a fellow comrade is admirable and all, but with all the chaos going on, what do they hope to accomplish? Already there are Marines arriving on the scene, engaging the motley crew of pirates scattered throughout the crowd in battle before they can harm any more civilians–

… Huh.

Seeri blinks as something interesting catches her eye.

The only civilians dead so far are the ones who couldn't run fast enough when the crowd started moving and were trampled to death. Sure, the pirates have been doing a lot of maiming here, but it doesn't seem like they've _killed_ anyone yet. How strange.

… Although, any more time spent watching the spectacle currently unfolding here, and Yune will be old and grey if not dead by the time Seeri gets to him. Best to pick up the pace, then. And for all that Seeri questions the pirates' brute force methods, there is no denying that this is certainly a very effective… camouflage. For the moment, that is.

Time to get moving before the Marines start wising up to the fact that these pirates' goal _isn't_ just to slaughter civilians.

(… How strange, strange, strange. Although heavily implied, Colbert had never told her straight out that he and his other pirate friends are here to rescue a comrade from being sacrificed to the High Lord of the White Coast. What makes her so sure about this little fact as if he had spoken it aloud to her without any lies?)

Seeri sticks to the shadows and corners, edges of the bright town square strung up with colorful festive lights, and keeps her head down as she slinks closer and closer to the jailhouse–

Ah.

Ah, there might be a bit of a problem with that plan.

If what's happening outside in the town square can be aptly described as chaos, then when Seeri finally approaches the wide-open blackwood doors of the jailhouse, she can only label what's going on inside as _absolute mayhem._ Blood. There is blood dripping on the ground, and bodies lying around –Seeri isn't quite sure if these men are dead, but they're not pirates or Marines. They're sacrifices, people who are to be killed at midnight anyways.

It's not these maybe-dead people who catch her attention, though.

It's the pirates.

The pirates, and the Marines fighting inside, and it's–

In a single word: _vicious._ Jean Bart, towering above everyone else, roaring and swinging his fists like a demon straight from the pits of hell –a single punch delivered from his height is enough to send any Marine unlucky enough to be standing in its path directly into the ground, into the splintered wooden floorboards. Several of the iron bars lining cells along the walls look like they have been forcibly twisted open, and Seeri has no doubts as to who did the twisting.

The pirates fight like animals, like devils, wild and unorganized but _brutal_ and effective. Their goal is the locked door at the end of the room –the place where the more dangerous, important criminals are held, and the Marines present in the jailhouse fight with all their effort to keep the pirates from reaching that door.

It is with growing dismay that Seeri realizes she doesn't see Yune running around anywhere in the unfurling madness of the battle royale. One possibility is that Yune was smart enough to make a run for it from the very beginning –certainly not impossible, but not a risk that Seeri is willing to bet everything on, because for all that the criminals in this first room of the jailhouse have been freed, it doesn't include _all_ the sacrifices. If anything, Seeri remembers hearing from gossipers in Radtep about the jailhouse being rowdy due to overcrowding from all sacrifices being moved into the jailhouse to be closer to the town center for the festival –which means that it's not necessarily all unimportant, unthreatening people who have been kept in this first room.

That locked door in the back of the room. It's possible that due to overcrowding, several sacrifices were moved beyond the first room and into that locked room, too.

… She really has her work cut out for her, doesn't she?

"Little girl," a gasping, choking voice. Haggard. Hoarse. Seeri stops in her tracks because one of the not-dead bodies rolling over the ground has reached out and caught her ankle in a vice-like grip. An old man with strength defying his age in his death throes, eyes as black as night. "Little girl. Have you… any water? Medicine… to ease the pain?"

There is an axe sticking into his back and far too much blood spilling onto the ground.

"No water," Seeri candidly informs the aged man, and brings out the stolen vegetable knife tucked up her sleeve. "May-dee-sen, yes."

The old man smiles.

"Thank you, little girl… and… I'm sorry."

Seeri certainly isn't very sorry; it's not like this is really anything new to her. She finds it refreshing, though, that even through the blinding pain that the man must've been suffering as he reached out to her, he had still said _sorry_ to her for asking her to perform a mercy killing on him.

The small exchange costs her a brief moment; when Seeri looks up again towards where the heat of the battle is concentrated, she sees that the pirates have already forced their way to the point where they are directly in front of the locked door. Which is good. As long as she takes care to keep herself hidden and unobtrusive, she can follow them once they open the door and move inside–

"THIS IS WHERE YOU STOP, FOUL SCUM!"

A roar of rage.

Seeri stops and _stares._

A man. A normal-sized man. _A normal-sized man who is holding his own against the giant that is Jean Bart._ It looks… bizarre, to be honest, because of the sheer different of size alone, but it's also an impressive sight. Very impressive. Seeri knows for sure that she herself would be flattened in less than a second against either one of them.

"Didn't you learn your lesson last time already, Jean Bart?" the Marine shouts. "I told you, that was going to be your one and only chance!"

"You took one of my crew," Bart growls back, a low bass rumble that sends the ground beneath her feet quaking. "Did you honestly expect that I would not come for him?"

"The only thing you'll be accomplishing," the man grunts, dodging one of Bart's punches and retaliating with his own blow. "Is _your death."_

Ouch. Seeri mentally winces when Bart careens into the wall, and the wall literally _crumbles_ under his weight.

"Captain!"

"CAPTAIN!"

" _Useless."_

This particular Marine's arrival is almost a rallying of morale for the rest of the Marines who are being beaten back by pirates –in contrast, the opposite effect is happening for the pirates, who have just witnessed their captain be sent flying into a wall. Even though Jean Bart stands up again with a roar of rage and charges down the terrifying Marine once more, even though his fellow pirates give a hearty shout and continue fighting… Seeri has seen enough to know that this is one fight that the pirates will not be winning.

… Under normal circumstances, Seeri wouldn't care. Under normal circumstances, Seeri wouldn't even _be_ here. Under normal circumstances, Seeri would still be back at Ayoka Village with her brother, watching the village shaman butcher a little boy to pieces to sacrifice to the Lord of the Coast like tradition dictated.

The current situation, though?

It was these very pirates, no matter their motives, who fished her out of the waters when she fell due to Marines and bandaged her wounds. It was Colbert who had piggy-backed her all the way from Ayoka to Radtep. It was these pirates who wanted to reach the locked door and pass beyond it –the same thing Seeri wanted to do. But looking at all the Marines gathered here now, sneaking in is tantamount to suicide. And as much as Seeri is a young girl who is many things, suicidal is not one of them.

The Marine has defeated Jean Bart. There are other Marines starting to gather around them, each with their own pirate captives. Seeri actually manages to spot Colbert from her hiding spot in one of the broken cages built into the walls –the man is not smiling; not with his captain bleeding on the ground and with the bitter taste of defeat heavy on his tongue, not with a black eye and a swollen cheek and cuts and bruises etched all over his tired body.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Jean Bart?" the Marine grandly sweeps a hand out at the destruction around them. "Is all this fighting and death worth it? Just for a man who deserves to die anyways? His participation in the ceremony honoring the High Lord of the White Coast will be a kind death in comparison to the one he deserves."

"You and your rotten code of Justice," the burly pirate spits out. "He is not the monster you seem fixated on thinking he is! I know him, he is my–"

"You're delusional, Bart."

There is a story here, Seeri knows. There is a story, probably one wrought with much misunderstanding and much pain and probably hatred and a desire for vengeance as well, but Seeri is _not interested._ She just wants to get into the locked room, look for Yune, get him out if he is there and get herself out to search for him if he isn't. Seeri really, really isn't interested on being drawn into other people's businesses at this point.

So instead of focusing on the agitated conversation between Marine and pirate, Seeri instead quietly slips around the shadows, slowly making her way to a position that is directly in the blind spot of the insanely powerful Marine standing before Bart. Even though everyone's guards are down right now, Seeri has literally just watched this unassuming brown-haired brown-eyed Marine take down _Jean Bart,_ who is big and tall and punches like a wrecking ball.

She will only have one chance at making her move.

(That's okay. Seeri remembers having worked with much worse odds before.)

"–weren't you friends at one point? How can you do this to him?!"

Something flares up in the Marine's eyes. Hurt, pain, indignation. Righteous anger. "I–"

This is her chance.

Seeri _moves._

Her foot collides with the face of a Marine standing directly behind the dangerous one; when this Marine lets out a startled shout of pain, the dangerous one whirls around, and _this is exactly what she is waiting for._

Seeri's body is underweight; small and thin and light, and she is a whirlwind in the air. She uses the other Marine's face as a springboard and _leaps,_ just as the dangerous Marine breaks off in the middle of his sentence and turns, and it's the perfect opportunity to hook herself around the upper half of his body, twisting like a water-serpent from the shadow-waters, and–

" _If you value your life, then don't you dare make a single move,"_ Seeri murmurs into the thorn man's ear in a soft hiss of wind-whispers, the danger of a rapid drown-current sharply embedded into every nuance of her tone.

"What the hell…? Who the hell are you?!" Surprise, shock. Hands reach up to pull her wrists away from where they are locked around his neck with a knife pressed tightly to his jugular, but Seeri immediately angles the blade so that it begins cutting into flesh. The hands abruptly stop pulling at her. "Release me!"

"Eef you move…" Seeri starts slowly, but pauses. She… she actually, legitimately has absolutely no clue where to go from here. Not because she is a little girl who has _just_ realized what a precarious situation she has launched herself into; good heavens, no. It's just… how, exactly, does one go about saying 'eviscerate' in the common tongue? "You move I… nai-fee… here cut…?"

Dead silence.

…

(… Okay, so maybe Colbert had a point about working harder to improve her grasp of speaking standard. It's definitely hard to sound menacing when you're threatening someone if you don't even know what words you should be saying to threaten them with.)

"… The fuck?" the man Seeri is holding at knifepoint growls under his breath. "You bastards. You sick bastards! You even dragged a _child_ into this mess? Jean Bart, I thought you were better than–"

" _Seeri!"_

The little girl blinks owlishly.

"Ah. Hai, Colbert." As good as it is to see that the pirate isn't dead yet, Seeri has bigger things to be worrying about at the moment. Namely, finding her brother. Asking the disgruntled Marine that she can kill at any moment right now sounds like a good place to start.

"You." She pokes the knife into his neck again, causing the man to stiffen. "You, help me. I want know… where I be findin' Yoon?"

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Author's Notes:

Fourth chapter up, sorry for the delay in updating. In my defense, I had a lot of things going on during winter break, and the main focus was on OTD and a shiny new plot bunny instead of _pluck down the stars from heaven._ Sorry for that. But at least we have ourselves a new update here? :D

Thanks to everyone who favorite/followed, and particularly big thanks to all reviewers! I know that this story went on a bit of an unannounced hiatus for awhile, so thank you very much for your support even during this impromptu period of inactivity. Even though I won't make any promises as to when the next update will be, I promise I will do my best. :3

We get to a little bit of action in this chapter as the Bart pirates make their move to rescue a fellow member of the crew. Next chapter should be finishing things up in Radtep, I think. :) As long as I don't go off on a tangent while typing up the chapter… definitely by the sixth chapter, though! Hopefully.

Also, finally got around to adding a cover for the story! I think the colors of it are rather pretty. xD And it kind of does match what I have in mind for the story later on, huhuhu…

I started a new **Tokyo Ghoul** SI/OC story: _left hand upon a mirror,_ so please check it out if you're interested in that! The first chapter is actually pretty long; approximately the length of _a sky of glass_ … which I still have to go back and edit sometime. Whoops. Definitely considering adding in new scenes to it when I get around to editing, though, so I'll stick up a note if that happens. :D

… I'm sorry for being such a promiscuous writer who is so easily seduced by shiny new plot bunnies. (Hides face) It's just. Plot bunnies! Who doesn't like plot bunnies?

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 **QUESTION:** So far, everything in the story is basically being told from Seeri's perspective. What do you think about seeing POVs from other characters, or is that something you think I should consider _after_ there are more canon characters introduced in _pluck down the stars from heaven?_

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Till next time,

XxZuiliu


	5. 1: 05 upon the swell

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Title: pluck down the stars from heaven

Rating: Still T.

Summary: Freedom is only an illusion until you possess the strength to reach out and grasp it with your own two hands. (Or: In which a soldier is reborn as a village girl in a world where piracy runs rampant, strange fruits grant superpowers, and the laws of physics are shot to hell.) [SI/OC, LawOC, AU]

Disclaimer: I do not own _One Piece._

(AN at the bottom of the chapter.)

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… In all honesty, the current situation here is a bit of a stalemate at this point. While Seeri does indeed hold this prickly Marine commander at kitchen knife-point, in the end it is only one hostage against a good thirty-odd-strong group of Marines shifting uneasily at bay.

(Poor odds if they decided to get their act together and rush her, that.)

Luckily, for all that the Marines have far more hostages in their hands in terms of pirates, Seeri _has_ managed to get ahold of their commander… and it's not the pirates that she finds herself particularly concerned about here, either. Pirates mean nothing to her, nothing when compared with her brother.

Yune.

 _Are you okay, Yune? Hopefully you've already managed to escape in the chaos earlier, but if you're behind this set of doors…_

Now, if only she can convince the stubborn Marine to cooperate with her, things would be a lot easier.

(Sadly, that's easier said than done. As most things tend to be.

… How unfortunate.)

"Tch. Kill me," the Marine commander says, and it's a low, quiet growl from his throat that echoes all too loudly in the silent room. A silence occasionally interspersed by the clicks from re-loading guns and steel blades scraping against the ground. "You'll find that you stand to gain absolutely nothing by holding me hostage, girl. You think you can save a pirate who deserves death more than anything else just by threatening me? _I advise you to think again."_

Seeri is vaguely annoyed by his presumption, in a rather distant, detached sort of way that she does not feel particularly inclined to have to explain herself for. Somehow, somewhere along the lines… apparently the Marines have started thinking that she is with the pirates, trying to save a fellow pirate? That fellow pirate of theirs that they bull-headedly charged in to save so openly, so foolishly?

She can certainly _see_ why they might have made that mistake, considering how she snuck in through the pirates' chaos, considering the timing in which she had leapt in with a kitchen knife in hand, but…

But she's _not._

She's not with them; she's not trying to save some pirate, even if that's what it _appears_ to be like on the surface, brashly charging head-on in this scene the way she did at a moment like this. And, honestly speaking? Seeri really, _really_ couldn't care less if the pirates and Marines went ahead and tore each other to pieces. All she wants is for the doors to open and to peek in to find Yune if he was inside. Or, if he wasn't, the _confirm_ that Yune wasn't in this jailhouse anymore for sure, get the hell out to find him elsewhere in town before he inevitably found trouble for himself again. After that, then she'd–

…

… She… admittedly, she doesn't really have a solid plan for anything beyond 'finding Yune.' But then, does that even really matter? All she wants is to be with her brother again. It's not too much to ask for, isn't it? Seeri just wants to find her missing brother, and the Marines are being very, very uncooperative towards that goal at the moment, which really wouldn't do, not if anyone was going to get anything done here tonight.

The little girl takes another silent, mournful moment to lament her lack of decent standard-speaking skills while the eclectic mix of pirates and Marines forcibly brought to a stalemate shuffle uneasily around her.

 _This sucks._

"Door o-pen," she enunciates clearly to the man she is holding at knife-point again. "Door o-pen, and I… I no nai-fee cut you. Yes?"

Even though she doesn't have a clear view of the man's face from her current perspective, it's not hard to imagine the bitter twist to his lips, the proud narrowing of his eyes as he spits out five simple little words in response.

" _Go to hell, little girl."_

It's not the answer she wants to hear. Of course it's not. Of course things can't be that easy.

Some of the Marines off to the side automatically stiffen, as if fearing that the strange little child who'd dropped out of nowhere would promptly lose her patience in a rather spectacular at their commander's continued resistance to her demands. As it is, though, Seeri thinks that they're expecting too much out of her, with thoughts like that. She hadn't really expected the Marine commander to just promptly cave just like this anyways given his life at stake –she's not the best judge of character, but she thinks she has a general gist of the man as a person, judging from his merciless actions and his vehement responses against Jean Bart in their earlier exchange.

And that's enough. That's all she needs to know.

(She's _not interested_ in learning more, so that's a little besides the point here.)

"Ru-de," Seeri purposely drawls out in a sing-song voice, her childish tenor every inch the slow lull of a tempest-cloud hiding back the black storm coiling along the watery sky-wind that rises to overtake the sun. "Then, if you sayin' no he-lp me… means no more need for you be keepin' a-li-ve, _yes?"_

If he wouldn't willingly hand her the keys, then another option was for her to take it from him herself. Worst case scenario, maybe, but it would be perfectly doable, she thinks. It had to be _somewhere_ on his body, if he held the highest authority amongst the Marines in this room. And for all that she hasn't _really_ killed a man before, only in intangible ghost-memories and not truly in this re-life, Seeri feels surprisingly little emotion beating in her chest and absolutely no resistance in her hands at all as she tilts the blade and–

" _W-Wait!"_

Ah.

(Ah, there we go. There it is. Seeri was wondering if she'd be able to draw out any fish to bite the bait she'd dangled here by demonstrating a little more seriousness to her words, not by mouth, but through actions.)

The corners of the little girl's mouth twitch up ever so slightly at the sound of the shrill, panicked call that she hears, and she loosely stills her hand again. There is blood on her fingertips, and it is… warm. Something about it feels nice, almost, this sensation of blood trickling down her fingertips and trailing to her wrist –and Seeri firmly presses down the sudden urge that grips her by the throat, the impulse to lean over and lick the blood.

She's not a sadist, and neither is she particularly inclined towards making weird habits now. It wouldn't be very sanitary, anyways.

"You be helpin' me, then?" she asks with just a _touch_ of fake, childish brightness to cover up the slight tremble on the tip of her tongue. The man who had involuntarily called out flinches. "Yes, no? An-ser, please, sah."

" _Wallace!"_ the Marine commander under her hold jerks –and he's lucky that Seeri doesn't _want_ to kill him, even if she doesn't feel anything against it and likes the color of his blood; she's quick enough to move the knife just enough with his movement that the silly man doesn't end up inadvertently committing suicide– _"Wallace, stand down! As your commander, I forbid you to–"_

It's a bit of a twisty maneuver, given that she's practically hanging off the man already, but Seeri reaches around with her other hand and sinks her bone-thin fingers into the Marine's neck. Not quite suffocating him, but it's enough to cut off his voice and let his protests choke into nothingness.

There. Much better.

"Thank 'ee kindly, sah." Seeri beams, and maybe she's having a little too much fun playing the role of a foolish little girl here? Or maybe too much of Yune's mischievousness has finally rubbed off on her now, and it _shows._ "If you be helpin', then me pro-mise I no nai-fee cut big sah 'ere, yeah?"

The other Marine –Wallace, the commander had called him– hesitates. A conflicted expression makes its way over his face, warring with rage, helplessness… before it finally gives way to resignation.

"Yes. Yes, I'll give you the key, girl. Just _don't kill him."_

Seeri smiles.

Excellent.

… As expected, though, the Marine commander she currently holds at knife-point does not agree with her.

"Wallace, _don't you dare–"_

"With all due respect, sir!" 'Wallace' interrupts roughly, eyes looking anywhere and everywhere but at his commanding officer. His hands tighten into fists, and his voice steadies. Interesting. Interesting, but Seeri couldn't care less about it at the moment. "We can't lose you. _We can't afford to lose you, sir._ Even if it means giving in and letting the pirates have their way this time, we absolutely cannot risk–"

" _It doesn't matter!"_ The Marine officer all but roars at his subordinate, and Seeri is very, very tempted to let the man just cut open his throat on her kitchen knife by this point. She manages to suppress the urge, though. Can't have him dying here just yet, not when he's still more useful to her alive than dead. "We're Marines! To uphold Justice –what Justice is there to uphold if we give in at the faintest sign of struggle, the smallest sign of loss? Do not mourn me! I–"

Seeri twists and slithers like the water-snake she is, settling her other arm firmly across the man's throat.

"Be talkin' too muhch." At this rate, she's going to get a _headache._ Are all Marines so wishy-washy? She actually feels a bit sorry for them… _not._ "Door o-pen. _Now,_ sah."

There is a moment of silence. A moment of stillness. Something seems to pass between the two men –the Marine commander she holds at knife-point and the Marine officer determined to save his commander– and 'Wallace' squares his shoulders, sucking in a deep breath as he makes his choice.

Seeri knows his kind. There is and has been and will only ever be one choice for him, in a situation like this. Duty challenged by loyalty.

… Mr. Marine commander is very lucky, to have such a loyal man at his side. But then again, Mr. Marine commander is also a fool, to so stubbornly struggle to hold onto his _Justice_ and damn all the consequences. Seeri herself is many things, but she hasn't been a fool like that for a long time.

She doesn't intend to return to being one, either. She _won't._

(Never again.)

"I'm sorry, sir."

Wallace walks up to the heavy set of doors gleaming in the torchlight, taking out the cluttered ring of keys from his side. Beneath her fingertips, Seeri can _feel_ the Marine commander tensing. Good. That means his officer hadn't taken out a set of fake keys to fool them… probably.

Seeri eyes the Marine officer speculatively for a moment. It's nothing she can't deal with, if the man decided to double-cross them at the last moment… but she'd really rather not have to deal with something like that. He didn't really seem like he'd be the sneaky type, either?

 _Click._

The doors swing open.

.

* * *

.

Contrary to what Seeri thought _might_ happen, a classic mad rush for the doors by pirates and Marines alike as soon as they opened… no one moved.

Silly, in her opinion.

(Or maybe not.)

The Marine officer glances back at her with an unreadable look in his eyes. "There. The doors are open. I've upheld my end of the bargain –now let my commander go."

Seeri lets out a little huff of amusement. On her childish features, though, it comes across as something more of a small pout, which is… not exactly what she was going for. But. Well.

"Che-ck feerst," she says. "Then I be givin' you grumpy, yes?"

"… Grumpy?"

"Grumpy."

Somewhere in the distance, a nightbird caws into the ensuing silence.

"… Right," the Marine officer coughs, delicately regaining his composure. _"Right._ Um. The deal was releasing my commander for opening these doors. These doors are now open. There is no reason for you not to fulfill your end of the agreement."

Nice try, she thinks. If she wasn't fluent in her comprehension of the standard tongue, that little piece right there might've succeeded in spinning her head a little. As it is, though, Seeri is careful to wipe all traces of amusement from her face and instead tilts her head in a childish expression.

"Yune. See Yune feerst, then re-lease."

"That wasn't–"

"Open doors be for findin' Yune, silly. If no Yune, then why open doors?" Seeri taps her kitchen knife against the Marine commanders throat. The Marine officer immediately stiffens, back going rigid as his eyes warily track her movements. "No worry, not like I can be runnin' 'way, yes? Many, many Mah-reens, 'n only be one o' me 'ere. Not be es-capin' without Yune, 'nyways. You be getting' Grumpy back 'en I see Yune."

And wasn't _that_ a mouthful to articulate. This would be why she despises speaking in the standard tongue.

"… I'll hold you to that, then."

Not like the Marine officer has any other choice at the moment, not with his commander held at knife-point. Seeri is tactful enough not to voice that aloud, though.

"Move," she says to her Marine-commander-perch.

The man glares at her.

" _Move,"_ she whispers, her voice the bone wind in the black water crevice. "You friend be doin' ev'thing he can so you no die. Eef you no co-op-per-ate, then ev'thing he done be fer nothin', and doors 'lready open 'nyways. That what you be wantin', Grumpy?"

It takes a moment, and she can _see_ how it weighs on him –but his shoulders sag and the Marine commander makes his way towards the set of doors leading to the inner cells.

 _Yune._

 _Yune, are you here? I'm here for you._

It's dark. Unlike the well-lit space outside, it was much darker after they passed the threshold of the doors. The following of other Marines and pirates behind them was not unexpected, but Seeri couldn't really find it in herself to be caring much for anyone else at the moment–

 _Yune? No. Too tall._

 _Yune? No. Too fat._

 _Yune? No. No, no, and no._

 _Yune…?_

"Are you satisfied yet, _girl?"_

It must be humiliating for him, to be used as a perch by a tiny girl less than half his size. Tough luck for him, then. _Considerate_ was not something that was generally used to describe her… well. Not for most people, at least. There were certain exceptions to that, and the Marine commander was not one of those exceptions.

But, that's a little neither here nor there at this moment.

Yune isn't here.

 _Yune isn't here._

Seeri isn't sure if she feels thankful, exasperated, or irritated the moment that she realizes that _her brother isn't here._ Or maybe it's a bit of a mix of all three? She's glad that her brother didn't have to suffer the chains and the cages of the jail cells, the fear of execution and death, but on the other hand…

On the other hand, not only have her efforts in breaking in with the pirates appear to be entirely in vain, she also has _no idea_ where her brother is at the moment. Had he escaped in the earlier chaos and she simply… missed him?

But she'd been _looking._ She'd been keeping an eye out for him, looking sharply for that familiar shade of sandy hair and golden eyes. She hadn't _seen_ him.

… He wasn't here, though. That meant she _had_ to have missed him. Somehow.

Was he wandering around the city by himself right now? With some of the other prisoners who had escaped during the pirates' rampage, maybe?

It was the most likely outcome that she could think of.

"Well, girl?"

Seeri blinks.

It appears… that in the short span of time when she'd been lost in her thoughts, the Marine commander had crossed all the way to the back of the darkened room. There was a man chained there –directly chained to the walls, dangling from rusting links of iron that chafed at raw skin. The man's head had tilted up at their approach, but he wasn't looking at them… at least, not until–

" _Yew!"_ Colbert bursts out from the pirates' section of the motley group, shoving his way to the front of the scene. For a moment, he hesitates –almost as if at a loss for what to do, before he spins on his heels and turns towards the uneasy Marine officer.

"Give me the keys, Wallace."

"Now wait just a moment here, you can't–"

" _Give me the fucking keys."_

"… No."

"Dammit, you–" Colbert lets out a hissing, explosive breath. _"What the hell have you been doing to him? He looks like he's half-dead already! I swear, if Yew dies from this I'm going to–"_

"C-Col… bert?" The chained prisoner finally looks up, brown eyes widening in shock when he catches sight of the people before him. "Cap… Captain, too? Ev-everyone, just… what… what in the world…?"

And in this moment when the Marines are tense and grim, when the pirates are tearful and overjoyed, Seeri is just _so damned done with this all, fuck it._

Oh, she _knows_ where all this misunderstanding is coming from now.

Her pronunciation.

Her _fucking_ standard pronunciation.

'Yune.' The whole lot of them –Marines and pirates alike– had interpreted that as _'Yew,'_ the man dangling on the wall in chains at the moment. _The pirate that the Marines had captured._ Pirate. _Pirate._ She was looking for her _brother,_ not for some random scruffy pirate she'd never even met in her _life._

It is in this moment that Seeri makes the firm resolution to improve her standard-speaking skills, if only to keep a situation like this from ever happening again.

Fuck.

Time to start looking for an escape route. Hopefully, the Marines would find themselves distracted by the pirates again when they went about resuming their jailbreak operation for their fellow pirate. In the meantime, Seeri would have to be patient while waiting for a window of opportunity to make her own escape.

… She really wasn't looking forward to this.

.

* * *

.

…

.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Fifth chapter up. Sorry for the year-long delay? At least there's finally a shiny new chapter here. :D Found this partially-done already when clearing up files on my laptop, so went, 'heck, might as well' and added some more. It's shorter than usual chapter length since I'm kinda tired at the moment, so I'll try to make up for that in the next chapter. We'll definitely be wrapping up the little crisis in Radtep in the next chapter, so look forward to that!

Had to re-read some stuff before rewriting, haha. Lemme know if any parts seem awkward or OOC, and I'll see what I can do about it.

Posted another **Naruto OC fic!** _from the very first time,_ set Third War-ish and featuring an OC with **time loop** elements to the story. Yeah, I dunno how that particular plot bunny ended up actually happening either. I was planning to sit down and write a fic with a Jashinist!OC and then this happened? Check it out if you're interested. :3

* * *

 **QUESTION:** Any thoughts on Seeri as a character thus far? Personal opinion, character developments you'd like to see, etc.

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Till next time,

XxZuiliu


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